Gershom Bradford Weston (1799-1869)
}} Biography Gershom Bradford Weston, son of Duxbury shipbuilding tycoon Ezra Weston (1772-1842) (AKA: King Caesar II) and his wife Jerusha Bradford (1770-1833), who were both direct descendants of six Mayflower pilgrims. Gershom was a large man with reddish hair, weighing about 250 pounds. At a age 17 he began sailing on his father's ships to Denmark, England and India, before taking on a managerial role in the family business. From 1842 to 1857 he and his brothers ran the family firm until it closed down. Gershom was president of the Duxbury State Bank from 1836 to 1842 when it was discontinued. * Beginning at the age of 28 he was elected to represent Duxbury in the state legislature (1828-1840), serving there for twelve years. * Massachusetts State Justice (1840-1857). Gershom Weston House Fire Gershom built a beautiful estate of some thirty acres and a mansion that was valued at about $50,000 when destroyed by fire on the night of 29 March 1850. All residents there barely escaped, and the Duxbury volunteer fire department arrived only in time to save the barns and outer buildings. In 1851 his fortune was estimated at approximately $200,000. Free Soil and Temperance He began his political career as a Whig. He turned to politics in the 1820s, serving as a member of the state legislature for twelve years and a state justice for seventeen years. He stood as the Free-Soil candidate for the U.S. Congress and lost by fewer than 150 votes. Thereafter, Gershom experienced significant financial reverses. In 1868, friends from the Massachusetts Senate purchased for him the small house he was then renting. In 1848 Gershom joined the newly formed Free-Soil Political Party and strongly advocated it's Temperance and Abolitionist platform - "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free Labor and Free Men" Marriage and Family Gershom had some cousins, that were memorialized in a book - The Weston Sisters: An American Abolitionist Family. They lived in Weymouth MA and their husbands worked in the Weston Shipyards. 1st Month : Judith Sprague # Gershom Bradford Weston (1821-1887) # Maria Weston (1822-1823) # Jerusha B Weston (1824-1824) # John Allyn Weston (1825-1869) # George Canning Weston (1828-1856) # William Bradford Weston (1830-) # Edgar Weston (1832-1851) # Jerusha Bradford Weston (1834-) # Alfred Weston (1837-) # Maria Weston (1839-) # Judith Sprague Weston (1843-) # Alden Bradford Weston (1844-1919) - Civil War Veteran - Co F, 2nd N.H. Inf. 2nd Marriage : Deborah Brownell Children - # Edmund Brownell Weston (1849-) # Ezra Weston (1859-1859) - died age 3 months Vital Records Mayflower Gravestone Gravestone of Wife : Judith Weston - Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury MA. Gravestone Plot : Lot 585 Grave 9 Oak Avenue Lists Wife vitals, Gershom's vitals. Curiously this stone also lists Gershom's 2nd Wife, Deborah Brownell. References * #102165835 * Weston, Edmund B. (1916). In Memoriam: Hon. Gershom Bradford Weston and Deborah Brownell Weston. Retrieved March 26, 2010. (Free on Google Books) * Tour Historic Duxbury MA - Notable Families of Duxbury * History of the Town of Duxbury MA - Free on Google Books * DuxburyHistory.org * Alden Family Kindred Society * Gershom Weston - disambiguation * See Forbes and Greene, Rich Men of Massachusetts, and Weston, in Memoriam 31-32.